Hey, it's the 4th of July

My 4th of July this year was significantly better than it was last year. Mostly because, I didn’t have to work a part-time retail job on the days surrounding it effectively killing all excursion potential and reducing me to watching movies alone on my couch because everyone was out of town. No, this year was filled with friends and void of work, where one of the best things is the cook-out. I’m a sucker for burgers and my friends make some of the best (yet another plus to being friends with guys with grills).

It is a day of good food, drink, and, my personal favorite, sparklers. Contrary to, hopefully, unpopular belief, they are not childish but in fact integral parts of an Independence Day celebration. Those metal sticks getting hotter and hotter as the wildly sporadic and very incendiary sparkles get closer and closer to your fingers. That’s the stuff birthdays are made of. I sadly don’t have any photos of sparklers this year, but they are important enough to warrant mentioning in this post.

One aspect of this year that was wildly different from any other 4th I’ve experienced, were watching the DC/Mall fireworks from the rooftop of an apartment. Every resident and friend of a resident were sardined onto the patio an hour before the first firework in hopes that they would be able to snag a spot that didn’t include a 6’+ dude standing directly in front of you. We were pretty lucky to have found a spot close to the edge and I, being on of the shortest of the group, was also lucky enough to slide even closer to the front as most everyone could still see over my head.

The really lucky people, however, were those in the tower next door that had sunrooms facing out to the river. They were able to stand, un-sardined and crowded and unobstructed in their air conditioned apartment while watching the fireworks. I would call that an unfair advantage, my friend would call that a need to get different friends with better views. Clearly I need to be more social this next year so that I can have a better vantage point for 2012. Tick*tock*

Regardless of my firework viewing location though, they were just as beautiful as ever and pleasantly only caused me to jump a handful of times. (Em = easily startled. Use this knowledge wisely.) It was unfortunately soundtrack-less, unless you count the smarta**es playing Party in the USA on their iPhones, which I don’t, but like I said before, still beautiful. I hope everyone had a great 4th with family and/or friends and paused for at least a moment to hum a line from 1776. “I say vote yes, vote yes, vote for independency…”

Happy Independence Day!